Network providers are always looking for a way to determine how a portable electronic device will perform before the portable electronic device is provided for sale to the customers. Conventional methods of testing these devices before they are provided to the customer typically do not provide very accurate, reliable results. FIGS. 1 through 3 illustrate example conventional testing methods. Referring first to FIG. 1, portable electronic devices 190 may be tested using a testbox 110 connected to a computer 120. The testbox 110 protocol used in this method of testing may not be aligned with the service provider's network, therefore, this method may provide inaccurate results. Furthermore, testbox testing methods do not test portable electronic device antenna performance, which may be useful in providing a more accurate prediction of the portable electronic devices' real world performance.
Referring now to FIG. 2, portable electronic devices may also be tested using a conducted network, where the portable electronic device 290 is connected to the base station transceiver (BTS) 230 through an RF Cable and the BTS 230 is connected to the BSC/MSC 235. Conducted network tests also do not test portable electronic device antenna performance.
Referring now to FIG. 3, some conventional methods connect the portable electronic device 390 to the BTS 330 over the air (OTA), however, these OTA environments may be uncontrolled and, therefore, may be susceptible to unknown changing network settings and external uncontrolled influences. Accordingly, the conventional test methods discussed with respect to FIGS. 1 through 3 may not accurately predict real-world performance of the portable electronic device. Furthermore, these tests only test the functionality of the antenna of the portable electronic device in a controlled environment, which may lack real world interference. For example, conventional methods typically do not test a link between the antenna of the portable electronic device and the antenna in the base station.